Blog

Summer has been very busy here at Flashed HQ. With the standard orders that go out, the Summer OR Show, doing custom work, and developing a new bouldering landing system for the Calgary Climbing Centre.

The reason for new landing system is a new free-standing boulder that has replaced a large A-frame style cave. The boulder, which is an enormous 25 feet high at its peak, is one of a kind that had the team here at Flashed brainstorming to replace the old system with one that would perform at a high level while preventing injury.

The new system needed to have a soft landing for falling from that height. This was a perfect opportunity for us to utilize our Accelerometer and Dynamic Fatigue Tester to find the best solution. We had an idea for types of foam we would use and how we would lay it out, and when made the drops with our Accelerometer to determine the g-forces we were very happy with the results. The measurements were very low, which translates to an soft landing. Next was the Dynamic Fatigue Tester that gives g-force measurements for repeated drops. We performed this tests for upwards of 1000 drops in the same location with very minimal changes to the g-force rating. However, we did have one concern, the top cover. We determined that we needed a fabric that was soft to utilize the foam underneath but had to have a lot of give in order to not tear under the weight and impact of a falling climber. We search for and found a great 4way stretch fabric that performed admirably.

After the boulder was in its place it was Flashed's turn to put in the flooring. It was a smooth process and it was being fallen on in no time. This prototype was working very well, however, with any prototype there are always fixes and bugs to work out but we believe we have found a great solution to highball flooring and landing within a gym setting.

It was a great summer of problem solving and utilizing our industry only safety testing equipment.

Currently, we are psyched for the fall as we have new product coming available and new projects on the go, including our new website!